<p>I had one incident of cheating in the beginning of my freshman year, but haven't so much as thought of cheating since and am adamant against it now. I'm a high achieving student, have good relationships with my teachers, and hold leadership positions in my clubs and in the student body. I've received awards for moral character and academic achievement. That being said, how negatively will my incident of cheating freshman year affect my app, esp. in highly selective schools? Also, should I/do I have to write about the incident in my college essay?</p>
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Sounds like you’r over it. It shouldn’t really affect your college admissions. I wouldn’t even mention it in an essay.</p>
<p>If the “cheating incident” resulted in disciplinary action by the school, then the counselor has to include the information in the school portion of the Common App.
You wouldn’t write about the cheating in your main essay, but you would have to include an explanation as required by the Common App.</p>
<p>All I was required to do was write a letter to my teacher explaining why I did it and how sorry I was. I didn’t receive detention or anything like that. Does writing an apology letter count as disciplinary action? I actually wanted to write the letter because I felt really bad about what I did.</p>
<p>If this was a civilian offense where it didn’t go beyond the classroom, colleges won’t see that this happened. I’d warn you against doing it ever in the future, but it sounds like you’re past it and have learned your lesson.</p>